Fossil fuel subsidies: the truth revealed

Market Forces placed Freedom of Information requests with three government departments, asking which industries are taking home the biggest taxpayer-funded handouts, how we can begin redirecting this money towards more positive programs and who is lobbying the government to keep their polluter handouts in place. These requests were funded by Australians concerned about the extent to which fossil fuel subsidies are encouraging dirty energy use in Australia. Below is the key information that was uncovered

Polluter tax breaks for the chop?

Documents from the department of Resources, Energy and Tourism show that in 2012, the Business Tax Working Group put forward two major fossil fuel subsidies – the exploration and prospecting deduction, and accelerated depreciation of assets – as options that could save the government billions of dollars in the next few years.

Big mining lobbies to keep big handout

In November 2012 representatives of the mining industry met with Treasury, concerned that they might lose their entitlements to the Fuel Tax Credits Scheme. Fuel Tax Credits to mining currently nets the industry about $2 billion per year, money that could be put into vital nation-building programs instead of handed over to wealthy polluting industries.